At 11th hour, lawmakers mandate a whole semester of Tennessee history, but don’t specify where it will fit

Tennessee students will have to take a whole semester of state history after all — but no one knows in what grade.

In the waning hours of the legislative session, the House this week approved the change, only days after its sponsor had said he was going to wait until 2018 to hash out the details. The Senate already had passed the measure, which does not specify the grade level for the course.

Now, the state will have to adjust social studies standards that already have gone through a significant amount of review and are one vote from final approval by the State Board of Education. It’s uncertain what that will entail, but board leaders pledged their cooperation.

“The State Board of Education will partner with the Department of Education to ensure that the social studies standards are in full compliance with any new state law before they are heard on final reading at the Board’s July 2017 meeting,” said executive director Sara Heyburn Morrison in a statement.

The law will go into effect for the 2018-19 school year, the year before the new standards, which were supposedly finished, are scheduled to reach classrooms.

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One of the reasons for the state’s social studies review, which began in January 2016, was the large number of standards that teachers were struggling to cover. The review panel worked to winnow those down to a more manageable amount and did not include a separate semester for Tennessee history.

To eke the bill through, House leaders amended another bill to include the mandate. Rep. Art Swann, the House sponsor, said Thursday that he was glad not to put off the measure until next year.

“We’re still going to have to wait for implementation, which will take a year or two to get done,” said the Maryville Republican.

Swann said he didn’t discuss the changes with the State Department of Education. “The Senate sent me the language, and it was fine with me and that’s what we ran with,” he said.

Eight of the nine members of the Standards Recommendation Committee who vetted the proposed new standards believe they allow teachers to go in-depth on important historical topics. But member Bill Carey, who sells Tennessee history materials through his nonprofit Tennessee History for Kids, voted against some of the standards. He was mostly concerned with the reduction of Tennessee historical facts in grades 1-5.

Sweeping charter school bill passes Tennessee legislature

Tennessee is close to overhauling the way it oversees charter schools.

The state Senate voted 25-1 on Wednesday to approve the so-called High Quality Charter Act, which now heads to Gov. Bill Haslam for his signature. The proposal overwhelmingly passed the House last week.

“This law will ensure Tennessee authorizes high-quality charter schools for years to come,” said Sen. Brian Kelsey, one of the sponsors.

The measure was developed by the State Department of Education in an effort to address the often rocky relationships between Tennessee’s 105 charter schools and the districts that oversee them. The overhaul clarifies rules on everything from applications to closure.

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Local districts will be able to charge an authorizer fee to cover the cost of charter oversight — something that school systems have sought since the first charter schools opened in the state in 2003.

The bill also establishes a fund of up to $6 million for facilities. That’s a boon to charter organizations that are too cash-strapped to pay rent and maintain their school buildings, said Maya Bugg, CEO of the Tennessee Charter School Center.

“It’s really an equity issue,” Bugg said of the facilities issue. “You have charter schools serving a majority of students of color, low-income, and for them to have this gap in funding, it takes dollars away from those students.”

The proposal had widespread support from the charter sector and from officials with Shelby County Schools, the state’s largest authorizer of charter schools, which has been sorting out many of the issues addressed in the revisions.

“Future school board decisions on whether to authorize a charter school will be based on best practices, and charter schools that fail to meet performance standards will be shut down,” said Kelsey, a Germantown Republican. “I am glad that the governor reached agreement between local school districts and charter school operators over how much charter schools should pay for an administration fee.”

Tennessee has a $2 billion surplus. Here’s a new idea to invest more in schools.

With about $2 billion in extra revenue this year, Tennessee is flush with cash.

But it may not last, which is why Gov. Bill Haslam is reticent to invest too much of the state’s surplus in public schools in need ongoing funding.

Now two state lawmakers have an idea that could both benefit public education and satisfy fiscal conservatives.

Rep. Craig Fitzhugh of Ripley and Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville propose using $250 million of this year’s surplus to create a public education fund akin to a college endowment. Money that grows out of the one-time investment could be used to help schools with extras that aren’t already covered by the state’s school funding formula.

In the first year alone, the fund could produce about $10 million in revenue for Tennessee schools, according to Fitzhugh’s estimate. Then, in other boom times, the state could add money to the fund if lawmakers see fit.

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The idea was inspired by Tennessee Promise, which invests state lottery money in a separate fund used to cover students’ tuition to community college.

Why not use a similar approach for K-12 education? ask Fitzhugh and Yarbro, both Democrats.

“Tennessee is doing pretty well,” Fitzhugh said. “We could come up with a sizeable fund to put up in a separate fund, a separate endowment for primary and secondary education. This year is unique to do that.”

The level of funding for public schools has been the source of several lawsuits against the state by local districts that say Tennessee isn’t fulfilling its obligation to provide all students with an adequate education.

The Fitzhugh-Yarbro bill would help address that concern by allocating the fund’s additional revenue to districts based on student enrollment. Districts couldn’t use the money to cover basic necessities like teacher salaries — just extras that aren’t covered by Tennessee’s Basic Education Program.

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“We had in mind reading courses, some additional money for dual enrollment — things that would get students ready to take on the Tennessee Promise,” Fitzhugh said.

The fund also could provide a buffer during lean times.

“These good times are probably not going to last forever,” Fitzhugh said. “If we needed some operating money to make it through the year, the legislature could authorize that some of this fund could be used for that purpose.”

While proposed by two Democrats in a state with a Republican supermajority, the bill is getting a serious look from lawmakers. The measure sailed through education committees in both chambers.

PHOTO: TN.gov

Gov. Bill Haslam leads a 2015 budget hearing.

But it may be a tougher sell beginning this week in legislative finance committees, which also are looking at Haslam’s proposed budget. Haslam spokeswoman Jennifer Donnals said the bill has a “fiscal flag” because it’s price tag is not reflected in the governor’s spending plan, which already includes a $230 million increase for schools. Haslam wants to use part of the surplus to boost Tennessee’s “rainy day” fund to about $800 million.

“It’s sort of in his court right now,” Fitzhugh said of the governor. “It’s not a partisan bill. It’s totally something that could benefit the No. 1 thing, which is education.”